Redmi Note 5 Review: Latest Offering From Xiaomi!

Redmi Note 5

Redmi Note 5

Performance

9/10

Pros

Decent Camera

Good build Quality

Cons

Hybrid Dual Sim

JustInReviews comes with its Smartphone review of the latest handset from the Xiaomi series. Today we shall talk about the Redmi Note 5.

The Redmi Note 5 is here and is not a significant upgrade to the Redmi Note 4 but a good package which is absolutely recommended if you are looking for a smartphone in a budget. Its performance is great and also in terms of the value-for-money proposition.

Xiaomi has created a comfortable niche for itself, in the Indian market and played it safe. For this review, we have taken the Indian variant of the Redmi Note 5, the one with 4 GB of RAM and 64 GB of internal storage.

Design :

Redmi Note 5 appears identical to the Redmi Note 4. If you see the rear, its same with antenna lines across the top and bottom.

But at the front view, the difference is apparent. The taller display takes much of the front. With a 2.5D curved-edge glass up front with tapered edges, ergonomics was kept in the notion. The device fits fine in the palm and is capable of one-handed usage.

This comes in a new color variant – Lake Blue – besides the usual Black, Gold, and Rose Gold.

Display :

Xiaomi takes up the latest trend of displays with 18:9 aspect ratios.

This sports a 5.99-inch Full HD+ IPS display with a 2160 x 1080 resolution translating to a pixel density of 403ppi.

The display is bright, the colors are vivid with deep contrasts. With sharp text and images and color accuracy, this is amazing. It’s a great display with a budget.

Performance :

The choice of octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 625 chipset might annoy a lot of power users who judge their smartphones on specifications sheet, but in a real-world performance, the Smartphone won’t disappoint. It comes in two RAM configurations, i.e. 3 GB and 4 GB with an internal storage of 32 GB or 64 GB.

The SoC, Snapdragon 625 offers a great balance between functionality and energy efficiency.

Multi-tasking is the new breeze, and it can manage graphic-intensive games without much sweating. The Redmi Note 5 has a 4000 mAh non-removable battery. This is 100 mAh lesser than the Redmi Note 4, but the newest would last longer.

Though there is no support for quick charging. It takes more than two and a half hours to charge the phone from zero to 100% with the supplied charger.

Hardware :

The Redmi Note 5 has a hybrid SIM tray; you can use two SIMs or one Nano-SIM and one microSD card. You should consider this before choosing between 32 GB and 64 GB variants if you wish to use two SIM cards.

Camera :

With Redmi Note 5, it’s an evolutionary upgrade. The Redmi Note 5 comes with a 12-megapixel camera with a larger pixel size of 1.25um pixels and f/2.2 aperture. It allows taking some great landscape shots. Sharpness comes with a mixed response. The camera focuses fast, so you can take some fine shots of mobile objects.

The 5MP front camera has a f/2.0 lens and most selfies under bright conditions come out good enough for social shares.

The rear camera can record videos at 1080p resolution and the quality is quite good. The video recording with a front camera has been upgraded to 1080p but yet nothing special to mention.

Software :

The Redmi Note 5 runs on the latest iteration of the company’s UI layer, MIUI 9. To say, MIUI 9 is based on Android 7.1.2 Nougat, and it is a disappointment to have a Smartphone in 2018 with neither Android Oreo nor a definite timeline for an upgrade.

Gist :

The overall software experience is great, and there are several features which you would appreciate, once you start using it.